Rutgers Basketball HC Steve Pikiell talks Seton Hall Postgame
Rutgers Basketball Head Coach Steve Pikiell met with the media following the Scarlet Knights’ loss to Seton Hall on Saturday night inside of the Prudential Center.
Following the game, Steve Pikiell spoke with the media to offer an immediate reaction to his program’s performance and talked about what he saw in the 11th game of the season.
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STEVE PIKIELL: “Hey guys, thanks for coming and obviously a good day for Seton Hall. Spent a whole week talking about turnovers and, you know, and how they play and they got a really unique style. They get people to turn it over and we didn’t start the game off the way you wanted to but we dug back in it but, you know, they get well balanced.
Sean’s done a really good job. The environment was great. You can’t turn the ball over like that.
You’re backcourt and have success against a team like that. That’s what they thrive off of. I thought we were okay on the backboards with them but, you know, just turned it over and spotted a good team.
Sean’s done a great job. Congratulations to Seton Hall.”
Steve you changed the lineup some today again, what was the decision to change it?
Yeah, they, I started J. Mike. I mean, I started Tariq because Riq had a terrific week of practice and so did the other guys. I wanted to put my best shooters on the floor too. And JMike’s an instant energy guy so I kind of wanted to go with some energy coming off the bench and Chris Newley was sick today.
Like, I want those kind of guys coming off the bench with Darren Buchanan. And we’re, you know, we’re searching. You know, Harun’s playing some good basketball for us. Just got to get another guard. I thought Lino came in and gave us great minutes until he cramped up and couldn’t play the second half. So, you know, we got to get our guards to play better for sure. But I went with that lineup a little bit older. They had a good week of practice. Our best shooters were on the floor. I thought that would, you know, help us a little bit in this game.”
Coach, I mean, how do you explain what happened and what went wrong in the first five minutes?
STEVE PIKIELL: “Yeah, I mean, just, you know, the crowd and, you know, a lot of new guys to this game don’t really understand it, you know, and just turn the ball over. I mean, we’ve talked about it all week and, you know, you can’t get off to that kind of start and, you know, but we bounced back from that.
That was, you know, it was a tough start. We got it back to one point. Harun steals the ball. I was telling him throw it towards our basket. He threw it to the other, you know, could have had a chance to take the lead at that point in time. So we did bounce back from that, but certainly not the way you want to start on the road against a team that steals the ball, you know, that steals the ball.
They make their pressure in practice? You know, we, you know, we try to, obviously, you know, it’s hard to do. They got tremendous, you know, length and, you know, but we were careless. It was on us, you know, break their pressure and we talked about breaking pressure to score and attacking to score and, you know, when you play in a game like this, you know, you’ve got to come out like swinging.
You can’t be timid and, you know, I thought we, you know, we’re on our heels for the first, you know, five minutes, but we did bounce back from that and, you know, turn the ball over the rest of the game too. So, yeah, hard to mimic, hard to mimic, but I thought, you know, we did, we tried hard to mimic it this week.”
Steve, a year ago the Seton Hall team won seven games. Is there some big picture hope in the ability to turn a program around?
STEVE PIKIELL: “I mean, yeah, I mean, I think in this day and age there really is, you know, if your resources are where you need them to be and your roster and, you know, I like my freshmen. Can they keep getting better? Can I retain them? You know, that kind of thing, but yeah, he’s done a really good job and they’re very confident right now too, you know, so they’re a real confident team and, you know, we’ve played some, you know, this is a tough stretch for us.
You know, we played number one and number one, I think Michigan’s the best team in the country. Purdue was number one at the time playing these guys on the road, playing, you know, Tennessee. We played some really, really good basketball teams, you know, so yeah, I think you can’t turn these things around in this day and age, but you could also have it, well, one year and done too.
You know, it’s a whole different world now that we’re all playing and you could have a great year and then your guys, you know, go shopping.”
It seems like Sha’s done a good job identifying guys that fit his system and play his style and he was able to bring them in the portal. Do you notice, you know, dramatic difference from the team he had last year to this year in terms of how they fit his style?
STEVE PIKIELL: “You know, Shah’s a really good coach, first of all, and he was a good coach last year. I know, you know, the results didn’t say that, like, but the guy can flat out coach, so, you know, he’s got a confident group right now. The point guard is really solid, you know, and when you get a really solid point guard that can score and make plays, he makes players around him better and then they play, you know, blocking shots and they’re attacking you, you know. I watched all their tapes.
I mean, they’ve done a really good job of attacking Kansas State, attacking USC, even though they lost that game, but yeah, I mean, you know, he’s a good coach and always has been, so, you know, and they play hard and they’re going to be physical and, you know, all those things that his teams do. I mean, give them credit for, you know, they’ve watched the tape on Harun and those guys too, you know, so, you know, give them credit on 15. They’re not just going to, they don’t give anyone open threes. You know, the paint has been an issue for us. We got in foul trouble early.
I thought he was getting ready to have a good rebounding night, a good rebounding night, and then foul, foul, foul, and then you have to start subbing guys in and what have you, but, you know, the backboards weren’t our problem tonight. We held our own and, you know, at times we just continued to turn the ball over at an alarming rate and you can’t give them that many opportunities to, you know, get easy baskets and they scored a lot of their in the paint transition off of our live ball turnovers. So, I mean, a huge part of that was, you know, the paint points was that.”
Steve, how much did your youth play a role in this game?
STEVE PIKIELL: “I mean, you know, I mean, it’s the roster and, you know, would I like to be older? Yeah, but, you know, this is the roster that I have and I think these young guys are maturing. We’ve got to get our older guys to play better, you know, too.”
A follow-up on that. Zrno, 13 points, 13 points, 15 tonight. What do you think of his development?
STEVE PIKIELL: “Yeah, I mean, he continues, you know, at first he was making that adjustment to, you know, playing in the States and he’s been practicing.
He’s been awesome in practice and, you know, in all of our, you know, high-level games he’s been able to produce for us and we got to start putting in some more stuff for him and he said if we didn’t have 18, you know, turnovers, he would have got some more looks and I feel very confident he could do it and he could score a little bit too around the basket. We got to put some tricks in for him because he can, you know, he’s got a little bit, you know, down low too that we can take advantage of but he’s come a long way. I think Kaden Powers, you know, his numbers don’t say it but he’s kind of figuring out college basketball and I think he’s gonna and Lino I thought was by far his best night.
I thought he was getting ready to have 18, 19 points. He can go by people and make plays so he’s maturing too in his game but, you know, got to have those guys, you know, on the court and they got to have them keep maturing. I mean he just cramped up and had to go in the locker room, you know, get an IV so he couldn’t finish the game.
You know, he’s getting better. I’ve played him in these games. He’s played in Purdue now. He’s played in Michigan. He’s going up against top flight point guards. He’s learning how to get by people.
He’s doing a good job defensively too. You know, I really thought tonight, you know, was a great game for him breakout wise and you got to make plays against a team like this the way they guard you. So it was just, you know, I was sorry to have him, you know, not playing the second half because he was going to get a lot of minutes and, you know, he needs to keep improving for us because he’s got some tools and he’s got some size and he’s got some creativity to him.”
Steve, you’ve been now 10 years in this series, this rivalry, you’ve been on both ends of it. What do you think of it and what are your hopes?
STEVE PIKIELL: “I love that Shaw plays it, first of all, and I want to thank him, you know, for that. That wasn’t always the case and I think it’s a great series.
I hope we play it for a long time and, you know, I’ve done what you would like home and home, right? Let’s do both, right? What do you think, Jerry? What do you think? I think it’d be great. Sign me up. Sign me up.
See what Shaw’s going to say. Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.
Thanks for coming, guys.”
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